Friday, March 16, 2012

Preschool: The Letter U

It was my turn to teach Harvey's preschool group this week. Since St. Patrick's Day is coming up, I thought I would incorporate some shamrocks and the color green as well!

We read Great Day for Up and I had the boys shout "UP!" every time they saw it written on the pages. (They loved that!) I told them that if they looked up in the living room they might find something green.

I had hidden one for each of the boys to find, and they loved cheering on the other boys who hadn't found theirs yet. After they had all found one shamrock, I told them there was another word that started with the letter U: Under. If they looked "under" in the kitchen, they might find another shamrock or two.

There were 10 shamrocks in the packet I bought, and I numbered them for future use. It would be really fun to go on a numbered scavenger hunt, or wrap little packages with numbered tags.

After all the boys found two shamrocks each, they traded them in for a green chocolate coin.

We talked about the spring weather and how we use "Umbrellas" when it rains. Then we made our own umbrella pictures with cupcake liners and straws.

After the umbrellas were all assembled, I had the boys practice listening and following directions:

Use a yellow crayon to draw a sun on your paper.

Use a green crayon to draw some grass at the bottom.

Use a blue crayon to draw some rain drops around the umbrella.

Then we glued some cotton-ball-clouds on, and it was time for a snack. We had an "Underwater" treat with some clover-shaped kiwis.

I let each of the boys cut their own kiwis and they loved using the mini cookie cutter. Then I let them feed the fish again (I also taught the letter F) because fish live Underwater!